Figures 07.07.17

FIGURES Mary did not paint people. She was not that comfortable around people and would have found it difficult to have had such direct contact. She did go to a life drawing class at lowestoft for a while. There is a crayon drawing of the side of a model, nothing revealed, and her shoes, as if Mary had not really wanted to look. There is one painting in the gardens, One Hot Day (1990) in which the woman is showing herself off in a slightly proactive but delightful way, to an admiring man on a park bench that comes near to having sexual overtones. Most of her work contains a lot of love for her fellow people sharing their enjoyment of the countryside and it’s events. I feel that ‘the women or the lady, stiffest or otherwise’ referred to a lot is her. Mary would paint the landscape but a landscape that was animated by people. People are often moving through a landscape, the cyclist, the runner, the worker or by animals. The landscape could be vast as it is, or the people could be larger when they were important. Often they have no faces no eyes. She said that eyes are everything in a painting yet she leaves them out. It means that the people are not conscious of you but inhabiting their world. In the oil painting Waiting For The Bus, a man small and central waits at the crossroads between hedges huge with May blossom, it’s as if he’s coming from the countryside alone, a countryside which he has contact with, and when the bus comes he wil break that contact as he joins with the other people.  LADIES AND MEN The feast of guardian angels here today - a pure thin October sky transparent leaves on the trees, many fallen so the guardian angels will show if they are in the sky Guardian angels not always benign as we would have been led to believe hard vacant faces looking through me, ignoring me, as a figurehead on a passing ship guardian only of the idea of a vulnerable human being. Go back to the sailors reading room in Southwold and look hard at the figureheads, redraw the beach, the moving shingle, the wet stones, the insistent to and fro of the waves - also impersonal - man is not important at all. but our ideas are important so we must put them down in concrete form before we die. October 2nd  The carrot man in the Fens Fields of feathery carrot tops, very flat, very regimented. 2 large bunches on the back of the man’s bicycle, feathery tops hanging down. Fast Walker A new theme - how men carry colour with them - walker kicking up moths from the side of the dusty road - men carrying flags - morris dancers - man with a bunch of gladiola - a man balancing a tray of geraniums on the handlebar of his bicycle - man with red waistcoar sitting on the river bank - man cycling in a field of gold - country men putting a rose in their caps - footwalkers with striped vest 10th August  GIRLS AND BOYS Struggling to paint the girl from Guernsey gathering limpets. She is emerging from an already beautiful background so that every new mark is vital and unalterable Trying to control the blues, depth, texture, overall balance of Girl with Butterfly Brooch Gathering Limpets The narrative content the oddness of the juxtaposition of butterfly brooch, bladderwrack seaweed and close clinging, strongly patterned limpets all set between slippery rocks. The painterly content is impossible to explain to anyone who was not used to a similar problem. No the cobalt violet on the left has picked up and out the pink on the right. It’s interesting and something to play on but not what I intended. (Bring in the sky light on the wet seaweed) Girl with limpets - All blues controlled and startling One dot on the blue skirt has anchored it to the background on a level with the seaweed. Now the limpets on the right rock have shot out of place. Only patience will bring them back again. January 25th Girl with Limpets Falling into the canvas with exhaustion but it’s done, I wanted it to be bizarre but it has come out delicate February 4th January 19th Girl in park St Cores Badecon le Pin, Argenton Sincreuse(?) Girl with butterfly brooch climbing rocks Dark Grey, Yellow of Catherine, Angels Above  MEN AT WORK Men with red and orange jackets sharpen our landscapes in the winter  SPORTING ACTIVITIES Ladies Wrestling, oil, date, photograph?  FETES AND FAIRS The great fair All the most unusual combinations of colours and patterns to taunt the imagination and last me through the winter. August 24th Ribbons twisted in light some looped by wind dandelions with shadows coming towards you dog rushing across little girl rainbow fan in sunlight large chestnut tree tent with green stripes double ring of dancers all skipping same way tall criss cross and dancers facing one another May - the great spring for country colours choose a May bank holiday May for fetes and outings plant and vegetable stalls appear everywhere all flags out for Ascension Day even butterlfies have shadows May for the greatest wool weight in sheep A faint ghost of the maypole remains  Late photo of Mary, with Tessa in the background For a new painting - To The Fair. This will be unusual for me - a crowd scene. The people are going to the fair. They like one another and understand each others way of life. In the distance, through a gap in the hedge, there is a crowd scene of colour and activity, flag and tents and even more people. There is a central gathering place and music and muffled conversation. The people are colourfully dressed, odd but interesting. They will exchange ideas, old clothes and books, buy and sell, talk and play music, dance and frolic and sit on the grass. Although the grass is wet, and the skies are full of rain, it doesn’t matter - this is fair day. August 29th Fete, oil,